We've moved

We're going to keep blogging here:

http://blog.thedigitalstew.com/

Awesome Stop Frame Animation

Her Morning Elegance
Directed by: Oren Lavie, Yuval & Merav Nathan
Photography: Eyal Landesman
Featuring: Shir Shomron

Customization is still king

Came across this great website today courtesy of AdRants.com...Hoodie Remix. The site is for Champion Sports Hoodies, that good old sweater jacket that never goes out of style. To revive the brand and give it a bit of Web 2.0 twist, they have joined the customization band wagon and is allowing their customers to custom design their own jacket any way they fancy. This trend is something that i believe will be pretty much a standard in the future. As technology in the creation of consumer products evolves, we will be able to ask more from our brands. Instead of just buying the products in the colors and styles the brand feels is best, we will let the consumer tell us how they want it. Even it's peanut butter and jelly colored members only jacket with lumberjack plaid interior.



Brands like threadless have been doing this for what seems like ages. ( More like 5 years) They have created a model where they don't play a role in deciding what designs go on which shirts. They allow their community to not only submit new designs, but also vote on those designs. The highest ranked shirts are the only ones that get produced. This allows the brand low overhead, and less merchandise sitting in their warehouse due to an unpopular design. I read an article about how successful threadless has been since its creation. The company is making millions of dollars a year with not too many employees. Probably because it all started with a killer concept.

The best part about it is that it works for more than just the artists. I found out about threadless because of a good programmer friend that has a thing for crazy t shirts no one else has. From his perspective it was a place to find original t shirts that were a bit racier than your garden variety Macy's brands. It almost has a couture vibe to it. It also appeals to the artists themselves. These guys can make a name for themselves by putting their work out there. If their design gets picked, threadless cuts them a check. It makes sense from every angle, yet its a super simple idea. One that I'm sure a million people had before them, but they were the first ones to truly believe in the model and really "put all their eggs in that basket".



Now that smaller (compared to Nike) brands like threadless start making some noise with this new-found model, bigger brands are riding the customization coattails. Big brands like Converse, Nike, and now Champion are all realizing that they need to invite their customers into the creation of their products. Almost thinking of their brand like a blank canvas that allows people to get creative. Sneaker Lovers have been custom painting Nike's since the days of break dancing, even now people go crazy for certain color combination air force ones. It just makes sense for these brands. Brands will have to realize that consumers want to control their stuff more than ever. The brands that facilitate this will be successful, the brands that don't will become the leaders of the new old school.

Cadbury Eyebrows...Classic

Gotta love this new one by Cadbury, really great special effects? Or was that the world eyebrow dance champions of the universe...

Nawls - Digital Comic Book

Some of you may have already seen this, but it is a very visually appealing digital comic book called NAWLS. I used to work for a killer comic book artist after getting out of college. At that time i was already obsessed with the web and wondered how long it would be before comics, stopped being on paper all together, and became full interactive experiences. First time i saw this it sent me right back to that time in my life, when i was coloring in pen and ink illustrations, thinking we should have been doing it in photoshop and flash.

One really great thing to note in this site is the navigation. I realized for being a complex site, it was very easy to navigate. Each next icon was blue, and previous was white. Both with animating arrows that draw your eyes. This is a great example creating a visual pattern with the user, to get them to just instinctively realize what they need to click on, instead of always having to tell them "Click Here".

http://www.nawlz.com/

Pretty Loaded

Last class we discussed the different elements which make up a site, one being preloaders. Well, here is a collection of preloaders aggregated by Big Spaceship.

http://www.prettyloaded.com/

Durex balloon animal

Super funny Durex commercial. Love the simplicity!

Check out the out takes on Superfad's site